“This is music to miss your lover to, love songs that manage to stagger above the over-sentimentality of recent album oriented rock, due to Nicks’s distinctive delivery and beautifully arranged songs.”–Q

Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks is Stevie’s first retrospective release. It contains 11 singles from Stevie’s illustrious solo career, most of which were remixed for this compilation, and three new songs. Stevie wrote detailed liner notes, explaining the inspiration for each song.

New songs

Jon Bon Jovi contributed one of the three new songs, “Sometimes It’s a Bitch.” Stevie initially had reservations about singing the song because of the word “bitch.” Bon Jovi deferred to the meaning of the song about life’s trials and tribulations and eventually convinced Nicks to record the song. Modern Records had similar reservations about the song’s title, choosing to abbreviate the song’s title to “Sometimes” in its radio marketing campaign.

Stevie had a far better experience recording “Love’s a Hard Game to Play,” a new song that Poison’s lead singer Bret Michaels had written for her.

“[Bret Michaels] sat down with an acoustic guitar and played me his song. Sometimes you meet a person and you feel like you’ve known them for years,” she told the Denver Post in 1991. “After the hassle of getting ‘Sometimes It’s a Bitch’ done, he gave me back my laughter and self-esteem.”

The third new song was “Desert Angel,” a tribute to the military service personnel involved in Operation Desert Storm. The song appeared as a bonus track on the CD edition of Timespace.

‘Silver Springs’ dispute

Stevie wanted to include the Rumours-era b-side song “Silver Springs” on Timespace, but Mick Fleetwood, on behalf of Warner Bros. Records, had plans to include the rare song on Fleetwood Mac’s retrospective 25 Years: The Chain (1992). Despite Stevie’s pleas to include “Silver Springs” on Timespace, Mick refused to release the recording to her. Hurt by this decision, Stevie distanced herself from Fleetwood Mac and left the group altogether in 1992 (with fellow bandmate Christine McVie).

In 1997, Stevie and Mick finally resolved the issue when Fleetwood Mac recorded a new version of “Silver Springs” for The Dance.

In 2007, Warner Bros. granted rights to release the original version of “Silver Springs” on Stevie’s third retrospective release Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks.

Other remixes

Producer Chris Lord-Alge remixed many songs for Timespace, but some of them did not appear on the collection. These included soundtrack songs, such as “Battle of the Dragon” (from American Anthem), and “Sleeping Angel” (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and “Violet and Blue” (from Against All Odds).

Release

Modern Records released CD, cassette, and vinyl (exclusively through Columbia House) versions of Timespace on Tuesday, September 3, 1991. The compilation reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart. In 1997, the RIAA certified the compilation platinum for the shipment of one million units to retailers.

“Sometimes (It’s a Bitch)” was the the lead single from Timespace. Its peak position on various charts is show in the table below:

Chart Name

Peak position

US Billboard Hot 100

56

US Billboard Mainstream Rock

7

UK Singles Chart

40

Australia (ARIA Singles Chart)

18

German Singles Chart

55

New Zealand Singles Chart

39

“I Can’t Wait” was also reissued for the European market, reaching No. 47 in the U.K.

Nicks supported the release of Timespace with a national tour dubbed “The Whole Lotta Trouble Tour.”

Fleetwood Mac's Billboard Number 1, multiple-million-selling album Mirage (1982) gets the deluxe treatment on September 23. Get the full remastered album on CD, vinyl, and DVD-Audio, plus new liner notes, unseen photos, rare outtakes and remastered audio from Fleetwood Mac 1982 concert at The Forum in Los Angeles. Revisit the classic Fleetwood Mac sound on "Hold Me," "Gypsy," "Love in Store," and much more!